Diamond & Pearl - Stormfront (Japanese: 破空の激闘Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky) is the seventh and final expansion of cards of the English Diamond & Pearl Series of the TCG. The Japanese release is the sixth and final of the Japanese DP Era.

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Description

The Sky Darkens... The Earth Trembles... The Storm is Coming!

A turbulent force is approaching and it's on a collision course with everything you thought you knew about the Pokémon TCG! In Diamond & Pearl--Stormfront, you are met head-on by powerful Pokémon unrestrained and never holding anything back! In this frenzy you'll find new Pokémon LV.X, Trainer cards that power up when played together, and the dramatic entrance of some of the most popular Pokémon ever! The time has come to enter the storm, and witness this awe-inspiring spectacle first hand!

Information

Stormfront is the seventh Diamond & Pearl Series expansion, originating from Japan as the sixth DP Era expansion, Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky. The 38th English expansion overall, it was released on November 5, 2008 with 106 total cards. The Japanese expansion was made available July 10, 2008, but only contained 92 cards. The additional cards in the English expansion originated from the Giratina vs Dialga Deck Kit, which was released on the same day in Japan and is seen as a complement to the main expansion.

The Japanese release was in commemoration of the eleventh movie Giratina and the Sky's Bouquet: Shaymin, which debuted in theaters a little more than a week later. Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky features the debut of Shaymin in the Pokémon Trading Card Game; however, as the movie wasn't going to be released until about seven months later in the United States, all of the movie related Legendary Pokémon—Shaymin, Giratina, and Dialga—were saved for the English Platinum expansion, which was released within the same week as the movie. Thus, the English release was forced to pick up new focuses based on the card that were left over.

The expansion introduces several other features that will remain prominent inclusions throughout the subsequent Platinum Series. Shiny Pokémon return to the card game after last being featured at the end of the Generation III EX Series expansions. The three Shiny Pokémon cards are featured at the end of the expansion with their own numbering (starting at SH1) that continued throughout the Platinum, Supreme Victors, and Arceus expansions. The Japanese prints featured Starlight Holofoil, while the English prints came in Mirror Reverse Holofoil. Also included were the first releases of retro cards, a series of reprinted cards from the Original Series updated to the current standards of the Generation IV. In this expansion, re-releases of Mitsuhiro Arita's Base SetCharmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard were included with updated illustrations, card layout, and card text for the current standards. This feature continues through the Platinum Series, but ends with Supreme Victors. They are included in the English expansion as Secret cards. Stormfront marks the end of held items appearing the the TCG, but introduces Trainer cards with a + at the end of their name, which each have a different effect depending on whether the player uses one or two of the same card at a time.

Pokémon LV.X in the Japanese release feature a new printing style not used on any of the Pokémon LV.X beforehand: each of the six Pokémon LV.X feature a Glossy overlay overtop their Cosmos Holofoil. Since it only started with Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky, this feature is exclusive to the in-set print of Heatran LV.X, not being included on the DP-P Promotional print release four months prior. Additionally, because of the earlier promotional release, Heatran LV.X was not provided with a regular Heatran to Level Up from, causing Heatran LV.X to be useless in a limited format setting. This is a trend continuing from Secret of the LakesLucario LV.X, Moonlit PursuitGarchomp LV.X, and Temple of AngerPorygon-Z LV.X. Each of these promotional Pokémon LV.X were made available as inserts in the previous sets' Official Visual Books.

Heatran LV.X isn't the only Pokémon in the expansion without the rest of its evolutionary family. Torterra, Infernape, and Empoleon were each released without the rest of the Starter Pokémon families, most likely due to their inclusion in the expansion utilizing the second type of their dual-type status. For each of these three Pokémon, this expansion marks the only time these three Pokémon utilized their second type. The Sceptile in the Japanese release was also left without its evolutionary family, with the Treecko and Grovyle being included in the Giratina vs Dialga Deck Kit.

In the Japanese expansion, none of the Pokémon cards featured Pokédex entries due to several of the cards containing too much card text for one to be fit on the card. However, in Stormfront, if a card has either an attached item (such as a Magnet) or more than three items of text (such as a Pokémon Power and two attacks), the card will not include a Pokédex entry: otherwise, it will, unlike in the Japanese expansion.

The Prerelease promo for this set is Piloswine, with the promotional prerelease sleeves featuring Dusknoir. Officially, the English release of the set contains 100 cards. Between Alternate Holofoils, promotional stamps, Reverse Holofoils, and Secret cards, the set contains 207 cards. A list of the non standard cards can be seen below.